"The Executive Yuan and President Chen are exceedingly earnest in these efforts," Cheng said. "We want young people to know that this time, we're `playing for real.'"

Cheng stressed that the conference, the first of its kind, was an exercise in deliberative democracy. The results of discussion concerning eight chosen topics will be written into an official document for the President and the Executive Yuan.

The eight topics, which cover themes of education, youth employment, youth in the government, social justice and environmental conservation, were chosen through an Internet poll from a list of 20 topics proposed by the Youth Commission, said commission representative Ma Wen-yu (馬文鈺).

"Because of Tropical Storm Mindulle, environmental conservation and land development has become a particular concern on the Web logs," Ma said.

The Youth Commission will provide information and invite experts on the topics in order to ensure an intelligent dialogue, Cheng said.

Holding the country's first Youth National Affairs Conference at Yangmingshan's Sun Yat-sen Hall (中山樓), which housed the National Assembly before it was dissipated and has enormous symbolic meaning, Cheng said.

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